[clug] Why isn't Java popular on the Linux Desktop?

[James Ring]

Hey,

On Thu, Jul 9, 2009 at 7:47 PM, Jack Kelly<endgame.dos at gmail.com> wrote:
>> Nathan O'Sullivan wrote:
>>>
>>> Mono has been in the news a bit recently, and I don't want to rehash that
>>> topic.
>>>
>>> I'm not involved in the Java world, but perhaps someone here is. Why do
>>> you think Java has not taken off for Linux Desktop apps? What needs to
>>> happen for it to do so?
>
> Better tool support for that sort of thing? I was using gcj for one of
> my assignments and found the same program to be massively faster using
> Sun's jdk.
>
> Autotools support for java is nowhere near the level of C or C++. gcj
> with the CNI could be fantastic, as java-the-language isn't too bad,
> but it currently needs work*.

Please $DEITY let Java never require autotools.

> *Example: its printf-style formatter still doesn't support "%f". I kid you not.

String.format() supports %f?

> -- Jack

Regards,
James